Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Finding a Publisher: The Right Fit by Gabriel Valjan

“…the best of times, it was the
worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was
the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity.”

You know the sentence from Charles Dickens. What most people
who quote that famous sentence forget is that someone has his head chopped off
at the end of the story. You don’t want to be that guy when it comes to finding a publisher.

A quick aside – I was asked to judge fiction submissions for
a literary contest. What do you think was the number one problem? It wasn’t the
writing. Drum roll please while mounting the scaffold. The problem was as blatant
as the glare from the guillotine’s blade. Most writers did not, could not, and
would not follow simple directions. Seriously. The directions were in plain
view. Your mom may have told you that you were gifted and special, but I hate
to break the news: you are not a special snowflake, so, like it or not, here is
the shiny, sparkly advice: follow directions.

The best way to find a publisher is not online or consulting
a reference book. That is too easy. The best way is to get thee to a bookstore
or a local library and be practical about the matter. Get your hands on a book,
several books if you can, of your intended publisher. Do you like the font, the
page layout, the way chapter breaks are done, the back cover blurb and the
cover art? In a word, do you like their ‘shop’? None of these things is
superficial because many an author finds out that that they have no say in the
editing or cover art. Find a publisher whose colors you would want to wear.
Write down the name of the publisher and play Sherlock behind the keyboard and
found out what the house is looking for in a Call for Submissions.

Follow directions on font, margins, and spacing.

Once you have primed your eyes on a publisher, then ‘stalk’
authors in the publisher’s stable and see how they promote their books. While
an author’s platform is an individual thing, you can learn a lot about a
publisher from their authors. Are they supportive of each other? Most publishers
do not have budgets for PR, but they do impart ‘guidelines’ to their authors. The
ultimate question is: Would you want to be associated with these people?

Keep all your communication short, simple, and professional,
whether it is a query or an urge to respond to a rejection. Risk sounding
almost atonal because emails are subject to interpretation. Good manners never
go out of style. Need to vent about a rejection? Write it all out and burn the
piece of paper. Rejection sucks, I get it, but none of this is personal. Time
is money and this is a business. Resist the urge to make snarky comments online
about agents, editors, or other writers. Your story wants a forever home. Editors
and agents love to read and they want to find the next great reading
experience.

The publishing world is small and any malodorous comments to
an editor will get aired somewhere. I can’t emphasize this enough. True story
here: a writer flamed the sender of a rejection not knowing that the person who
had sent the polite rejection was the owner of the publishing press. You
guessed it: that snowflake was forever consigned to virtual hell. The point is
people know each other. One person may not accept you but that person may
direct you to someone who will.

Track your submissions, so there are no painful blunders.
Careful research may reveal that the small label you thought was indie might be
a small imprint of a larger firm. You don’t want to stumble in front of the same
editor with the same story. Submittable is a great online tool for tracking
your submissions.

Network. If you attend readings or conferences, you may hear
or learn about new agents or editors in search of new authors. Editors are the
gatekeepers. Be polite and strive to make a good impression. It is a job
interview.

A call for help from an old friend lands Bianca and the crew
back in Boston. On a timeout with Dante, due to revelations in the aftermath of
the showdown in Naples, Bianca is drawn to a mysterious new ally who
understands the traumas of her past, and has some very real trauma of his own.
Murder, designer drugs, and a hacker named Magician challenge our team, and
Bianca learns that leaving Rendition behind might be much harder than she
thinks.

About the Author:

Gabriel Valjan is the author of the Roma Series from Winter Goose Publishing as well as numerous short
stories. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts, where he enjoys the local
restaurants, and his two cats, Squeak and Squawk, keep him honest to the story
on the screen.